SAN DIMAS, Calif. — There is no way anyone can come to know Sarah Canepa Bang for very long without asking about her name. It has a lyric quality of syllables and vowels the somewhat explosive ending that makes it easy to say and even easier to remember–qualities Bang appreciates. So it's ever more ironic that she began using her maiden name almost as a defensive strategy.

Bang has served as the CEO of the Financial Service Centers Cooperative Shared Branch Network since 1999.Bang recounted how soon after her marriage to Steve Bang, a man she met while working for CUNA in Madison, she met with a group of credit union executives and how she was called to the front of the group by the meeting's leader who said "now let's hear from bang Bang."

"It became apparent fairly quickly that being Sarah Bang might not be very good for my career," Bang said. "I was being called whiz-bang, bing bang, any of the bang phrases you can think of." But the breaking point came, she said, when she called a credit union CEO and had him drop the phone because he laughed so hard when she said her name.